tamaranth | Recent Cultural Outings: Berlioz, Eugene Onegin, Another Earth

I have been lax in writing up my Thoughts on Culture ... recent outings have included Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and Another Earth at the cinema.

Concert:
I was really looking forward to the Philharmonia concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 8th December: Beethoven Violin Concerto and Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, conducted by Ashkenazy. Unfortunately, it was a bad evening for travel, and I missed the first half.

Symphonie Fantastique lived up to its name, though. (The bells, the bells! Apparently they were behind us somewhere.) And it was marvellous watching Ashkenazy's expressions as he took the orchestra -- and the audience -- through the sweet calm of the second movement and the roistering insanity of the fourth. Truly ominous bass, uplifting brass: mmm, I hadn't registered "the series of pizzicato notes following represents the rolling of the severed head into the basket". Delightful! This is such a gloriously indulgent symphony, the epitome of C19 French Romantic music.

Opera:
I've been meaning to write about my most recent night at the opera: Eugene Onegin at the ENO, 25th November.

The balcony seats at the Coliseum seem increasingly uncomfortable, and I've found myself wishing that favourite operas were over so that I could stretch and move and uncrick my neck. Not good! So, as a special treat, we (

ladymoonray, her mother, and I) went for box seats -- a side stalls box, in fact, with just three chairs, which meant that we had it to ourselves.

I am very strongly tempted never to go back to the balcony. Yes, the seats are expensive (but actually, given ~£30 for a balcony seat, it's not an astronomical increase: less frequent but more pleasant opera trips would be a reasonable trade-off). But we could hear and see everything clearly, without craning and twisting; we had actual chairs; we could have a drink in our box, instead of in one of the ENO's crowded, noisy bars; there was space for our coats and bags; and we were incredibly close to the singers, picking up every nuance of tone and posture.

This production was considerably darker than the ENO's previous: even the translation seemed more angst-ridden. The cheerful peasant song in the first act, which featured 'the farmer's pretty daughter' in the former version, became a song about a sluttish woman who strips off in the twilight. Onegin was much more of a cad -- not a charming rogue but a dangerous sociopath. Tatyana, who lives her life in dreams, seemed pathetic rather than romantic. And I'm pretty sure the gay subtext was being played up (to the extent it was barely subtext at all). Tchaikovsky was persecuted for and made miserable by his own homosexuality: there are elements of his own perspective and experience in his version of Pushkin's epic.

The French bits, by the way, were surtitled in French, not in English.

Film:
This week I saw Another Earth at the Arts Picturehouse. I'm still thinking about it.

Things this film is 'about': forgiveness, cleaning, atonement, silence.

It's science fantasy rather than science fiction, because it doesn't really explore the physics of its premise: a duplicate Earth approaching our own, growing bigger and brighter in the sky. Instead, it's a thought experiment: a beautifully-shot film with a minimal, ambient soundtrack (featuring a musical saw!) and a plot that's a poignant exploration of the 'twin earth' concept and the notion of mirror realities splitting off.

Another Earth is about as far as one can get from the standard Hollywood blockbuster. No explosions! No big-name stars! (Though Brit Marling, who plays the protagonist Rhoda, deserves acclaim and lots of work.) No budget! Well, some budget: it cost $200,000 to make. But oh, the burnished glow of the New England coast in winter; the blue earthshine of the lighter nights; the abstract light-and-dark of Rhoda's face as she asks herself the hard questions.